Using Mercedes as an example. Going from 1 to 4 or down the ladder. Shouldn’t its own car performance be AT LEAST as good as previous years?
What changes year to year that the data they have or previous winning cars cant be used?
Thanks 🙂
In: Engineering
In Formula 1, the “Formula” is the rulebook that defines everything about the car. Wheel size, engine specs, weight, fuel, etc. (There’s other formulas, like Formula E for electric racing or Formula 2 which is a tier down from 1).
The governing body, FIA, changes the formula pretty regularly so teams are constantly updating their cars.
When adapting to these new rules, some teams come up with better solutions than others, which leads to a re-shuffling of their positions on the leaderboard. This is especially true when a team comes up with a novel solution or invents a new technology the others didn’t think of.
A great example is Mercedes’ 2020 car, where they introduced dual axis steering that let them adjust toe-in/toe-out on the fly. They were faster on the straights, they were faster in corners, it made them so dominant that FIA updated the formula to forbid them from using it for 2021.
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